1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to chip antennas. In particular, the present invention relates to a chip antenna used for mobile communication and local area networks (LAN).
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 3 shows a prior art monopole antenna 50. The monopole antenna 50 has a conductor 51, one end 52 of the conductor 51 being a feeding point and the other end 53 being a free end in the air (dielectric constant .epsilon.=1 and relative permeability .mu.=1).
Because the conductor of the antenna is present in the air in linear antennas, such as the prior monopole antenna 50, the size of the antenna conductor must be relatively large. For example, when the wavelength in the vacuum is .lambda..sub. in the monopole antenna 50, the length of the conductor 51 must be .lambda..sub.0 /4. Thus, such an antenna cannot be readily used for mobile communication or other application which require a compact antenna.